Wake up call time

Broke_Kitty

cms-help wrote: »

Maybe not but some dentists are more experienced with root canals than others; just give them your dental history (don't mention what other dentists have suggested/recommended and see what they say). Whilst they're both NHS dentists, they are still competition for each other as patients = payments.

I've never written a contract for an NHS Endodontist so I suspect rare is the operative word. Complex cases were always referred to oral surgeons at the hospital when I was there so generally stayed under the NHS remit.

That's good to know, thanks!

brook2jack

If a root canal needs redoing more often than not it is a specialist job. Specialist endodontists are not , in the vast majority of cases , employed by the nhs. They are a completely different speciality to oral surgeons who do not have the expertise or equipment to do endodontics and would never have endodontic problems referred to them with the exception of apicectomies which are operations where the gum is cut open and bone drilled away to clean the tooth out.

They use equipment such as operating microscopes which cost £15000 upwards, specialist cleaning systems costing £50 a go and materials such as mdta cement at £50 a go and can involve several hours of surgery time which is so expensive no specialist would have a go on the nhs as they would lose so much money when the total fee for all treatment is on the nhs £66 ish. No non specialist would "have a go" at a tooth that needs specialist treatment as they would leave themselves wide open to legal action if treatment was not successful on a difficult tooth.

Implants are not available on the nhs except where exceptional funding is granted for oral cancer , trauma cases or congenital absence of 6or more adult teeth and even then is not guaranteed.

In short the tooth needs specialist treatment, the nhs won't fund specialist endodontists (difficult to justify nhs spending £400 plus to save one tooth when it's so stretched) so treatment will have to be private, ditto implants.

However if tooth needs to come out implant can always be done in the future when live saved up as orthodontic retainers should keep the space open.

Broke_Kitty

brook2jack wrote: »

If a root canal needs redoing more often than not it is a specialist job. Specialist endodontists are not , in the vast majority of cases , employed by the nhs. They are a completely different speciality to oral surgeons who do not have the expertise or equipment to do endodontics and would never have endodontic problems referred to them with the exception of apicectomies which are operations where the gum is cut open and bone drilled away to clean the tooth out.

They use equipment such as operating microscopes which cost £15000 upwards, specialist cleaning systems costing £50 a go and materials such as mdta cement at £50 a go and can involve several hours of surgery time which is so expensive no specialist would have a go on the nhs as they would lose so much money when the total fee for all treatment is on the nhs £66 ish. No non specialist would "have a go" at a tooth that needs specialist treatment as they would leave themselves wide open to legal action if treatment was not successful on a difficult tooth.

Implants are not available on the nhs except where exceptional funding is granted for oral cancer , trauma cases or congenital absence of 6or more adult teeth and even then is not guaranteed.

In short the tooth needs specialist treatment, the nhs won't fund specialist endodontists (difficult to justify nhs spending £400 plus to save one tooth when it's so stretched) so treatment will have to be private, ditto implants.

However if tooth needs to come out implant can always be done in the future when live saved up as orthodontic retainers should keep the space open.

Thank you, the first two paragraphs are pretty much exactly what my dentists have told me, including the bit about mdta etc.

This must be why my orthodontist said it was so rare to see an endodontist practicing on the NHS.

Also really appreciate someone else confirming this as I kinda get the feeling most people don't believe me when I say this.